Over the span of a few short years the Internet has gone from a highly specialized quasi-public computer network used by a relatively narrow group of individuals and institutions, to a broadly based worldwide web that touches upon the daily lives of hundreds of millions, if not billions, of individuals, businesses and other entities across the globe. The explosive growth of the Internet has brought with it an equally expansive growth of its use for exchanging and sharing information, providing services and conducting commercial or business transactions. Business transactions conducted over the Internet, generally referred to as “e-commerce”, provides individuals across the world with the ability to shop for a wide variety of goods and services, offered by countless different businesses and commercial operations, merely through the use of a personal computer connected to the Internet by way of a standard modem. Many have predicted that in the foreseeable future the volume and dollar value of merchandise purchased through e-commerce will rival or exceed what is purchased through more traditional methods.
Unfortunately, with the rapid advancement of the Internet and its use by more and more individuals, businesses and other entities there has also been a significant increase in the incidence of invasion of privacy, identity theft, fraud and financial theft by unscrupulous individuals. Since by the very nature of e-commerce transactions the parties, or the buyer and seller, rarely meet face to face, much of the merchandise purchased over the Internet is paid for by consumers through the use of credit cards or debit cards. Typically a consumer places an order for merchandise over the Internet and provides the merchant with details concerning his or her credit card (or in some cases debit card) so that the merchant may process payment for the goods prior to their shipment. Companies who engage in electronic commerce often incorporate elaborate security, firewall and encryption systems in order to help safeguard sensitive or confidential financial information sent and received over the Internet. However, even with such safeguards in place confidential financial or other information is often vulnerable to access by unauthorized parties who are able to break through security barriers, firewalls or encryption systems. As a result, the security of credit, financial and other sensitive or confidential information that may be provided over the Internet, and its potential theft or fraudulent use, is a growing concern to consumers, merchants and financial institutions alike. Aside from elaborate security and encryption systems, in most cases the only alternative available to a consumer and a merchant that provides for the security of the consumer's credit information is for the consumer to forward payment by means of a cheque or money order directly to the merchant. However, that alternative is often either undesirable or impractical, due to the administrative inconvenience and delay associated with having to forward payment through other channels for manual processing prior to shipment of the goods or merchandise.